Fire rebuild electrical, done right the second time.

Where we are

The rebuild is a new construction job with extra steps.

Electrically, a fire rebuild is ground-up new construction: the old system is gone, the utility service has to be re-established, and the new house is built to the code in force today, not the one the original house was wired under. County Line Electric treats it that way, with the same plan review, rough-in discipline and inspection record it brings to any custom home. The extra steps are the ones that come with a disaster: temporary power on a cleared lot, utility reconnection on a street where the poles or the underground may also be new, and permitting through the expedited rebuild programs each jurisdiction has set up.

County Line is a Ventura County contractor that has worked in Malibu and the Palisades for years, and Jeff Tucker made the decision early in 2025 to put the crew on rebuild work. The company does not advertise itself as a disaster specialist. It is an electrical contractor that knows these neighborhoods and knows how to wire a house.

Plain speaking

What County Line will not tell you.

A lot of marketing has grown up around the fires. This is what the company does not claim.

• It does not give insurance or legal advice. Your adjuster and your attorney handle that; County Line gives you an itemized electrical proposal they can read.
• It is not an authorized utility contractor, a government partner or an approved anything. It is a licensed electrical contractor pulling permits like any other.
• It does not promise a schedule the utility has not confirmed. Reconnection dates come from LADWP or SCE, and County Line relays them, not invents them.
• It does not quote a price without seeing the plans and the lot.

Official rebuild resources, which County Line links to rather than imitates: City of Los Angeles rebuilding, LADWP restoration and rebuilding, City of Malibu rebuilding.

Questions from rebuilding homeowners

Temporary power

The first thing on the lot, and the first thing to file for.

Nothing happens on a cleared lot without power for the foundation and framing crews, and in the Palisades and Altadena the utility application for temporary service is the long lead item. County Line files it as soon as the lot address and the plans exist, sets the temporary pole or pedestal to the utility's standard, gets it inspected, and keeps the build moving on temporary power while the permanent service works its way through LADWP or SCE. When the permanent service is energized, the temporary comes out and the credit for it is on the final invoice.

Working with the adjuster

What County Line gives you for the insurance file.

County Line does not give insurance advice. What it gives is paperwork an adjuster can use: an itemized electrical proposal that separates the like-for-like replacement of what the house had from the code upgrades the new permit requires and from the improvements the owner chose. Those three categories are treated differently by most policies, and a proposal that lumps them together costs the owner money on both ends. The company has prepared that split for rebuilds in the Palisades, Altadena, Malibu and the Mountain Fire area and will prepare it again for yours.

Keep the permit record, the inspection cards and the final. They are the proof the work was done to code, and they travel with the house.